62 Advanced Google Search Operators, Use Cases & Cheatsheet

Updated by Chima Mmeje — April 23, 2025.

Google search operators are special characters and commands, sometimes called “advanced operators” or search parameters, that extend the capabilities of regular text searches. 

Finding the right information on Google can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. It’s frustrating when you know the information exists but can’t locate it efficiently.

By using search operators, you can refine your search results and find what you’re looking for. Whether you’re conducting research or simply trying to find specific information, search operators can make your Google searches more efficient and targeted. 

For example, a search operator might look like:  allintitle: tesla vs edison

A search parameter might look like:

https://www.google.com/search?q="nikola+tesla"

Apart from known search parameters, you can construct your own search strings by typing them into the Google search box. They can be useful for everything from content research to technical SEO audits.

We’ve simplified complex commands into clear, actionable insights, ensuring you can apply them immediately. Each operator includes:

• What it does: A concise explanation.
• Working status: Is the operator still functional?
• Example: Ready-to-use search strings for real-world tasks.

You can find all of the major organic search operators below, broken up into three categories: “Basic”, “Advanced”, and “Unreliable”. Basic search operators are operators that modify standard textsearches.

List of unreliable search operators

List of deprecated search operators dropped by Google

Having all the pieces is only the first step in building a puzzle. The real power of search operators comes from combining them.

While the examples here are a great starting point, don't hesitate to mix and match these operators yourself. You might discover new ways to use them that perfectly suit your needs.

1. Find non-secure pages

Using Google: Search with site:example.com -inurl:https to find pages that aren't using HTTPS, which are less secure and could hurt your SEO. 

For example, when we review Microsoft, you see pages with http that haven’t been upgraded to HTTPS.

2. Find plagiarized content

Using Google: Use the query allintext:example text to search for exact matches of your content across the web. It can identify if your content is being plagiarized elsewhere without permission.

For example, when I searched for text from this post, I noticed that several websites were reusing our content without credit. 

In the screenshot above, you can see some sites plagiarizing the blog post.

This doesn’t always work, but it’s a good way to discover where your content appears online.

3. Find guest post opportunities

Use specific queries to find websites that accept guest posts in your niche. For instance, you can search  freelancing intitle:"write for us" inurl:write-for-us: to find relevant opportunities.

This method is often overused, and you’ll end up pitching to the same site as everyone else. A better approach is to find prolific guest bloggers in your niche and see where they’ve published so you can pitch there.

For example, if you run this search, seo inurl:author/neil-patel, you can see that Neil Patel has published SEO content on sites like HubSpot and Search Engine Journal.

Although Moz doesn't directly find guest post opportunities, you can use Moz Link Explorer to assess the potential value of these opportunities. 

Here’s how:

Analyze Domain Authority: Use Moz’s Link Explorer to check the Domain Authority of the sites you're considering for guest posts. This ensures you choose sites that can help your content rank.

For example, Neil Patel has published a guest post on GeekWire. The screenshot above shows that it’s a high-authority domain with an excellent link profile. 
Hence, it’s a great domain to publish an industry-relevant guest post if you want high-quality backlinks with referral potential.

4. Find your competitor’s top pages for a specific keyword

Identifying your competitor's pages that have the most backlinks shows you which of their content is most popular and trustworthy in your industry.

For example, if you wanted to see which pages on Moz perform really well for the topic “link building” you could search site:moz.com combined with inurl:link building to view this information.

From the screenshot above, you can see that the Beginner’s Guide on link building performs best.

If you want more Insights, you can get an overview of the page’s performance with MozBar, an SEO toolbar embedded within Google search results. You can immediately see Insights like Page Authority, backlinks to the page, and the size of the website’s link profile.

Go deeper with Moz Link Explorer to understand who’s linking to this page. Click the Links feature similar to the screenshot below to see more link data.

You’ll see that it has earned backlinks from reputable sites like HubSpot, Namecheap, and Bluehost.

Links from credible and authoritative websites influence a page’s ability to rank and might explain why the beginner’s guide is Moz’s top performer for the keyword.

5. Find internal linking opportunities

Identifying opportunities for internal linking within your website can improve site structure, page authority, and user engagement.

You can find unlinked but related content within your site by combining a few search operators, such as site:yourdomain.com "keyword or phrase," to find all pages mentioning a specific keyword or topic. 

Review these results to see if there are pages that mention the keyword but do not link to the main article or category page for that keyword.

For example, suppose you were writing an article for Writesonic and there’s an opportunity to link to the phrase “ai agent”. In that case, you can do an internal search “ai agents site:writesonic.com" to identify the top pages Google is picking up for the keyword.

If you want to increase your chance of ranking for the keyword, you’d link to the top page. However, if you want to spread link juice, you will link to other pages to increase their page authority.

6. Understand your local competitor’s SEO strategy

Utilize the map: operator in Google search to conduct location-based searches and identify local competitors.

For example, if you type map:Mcdonalds into Google’s search bar it displays maps showing the locations of McDonald's restaurants near you, providing insight into local market saturation and competitor distribution.

While the map: operator gives a visual representation of local competitors, use Moz Local to optimize your local SEO strategy. Moz Local provides detailed reports on your visibility in local searches, which can help you understand how well you're competing against businesses like McDonald's in your area.

It also ensures your business listings are consistent and accurate across all platforms to improve your local search visibility.

7. Find credible sources for your articles

Use the filetype: and ext: search operators to find documents or particular formats, such as PDFs, DOCs, or PPTs. Sourcing credible references can improve the experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) of your content.

For example,  if you were writing an article about LLM training data, you could search filetype:pdf llm training data to find some resources to cite.

8. Identify competitors in your niche

Use the related: search operator to discover competitors with similar offerings or those ranking for keywords you’re going after.

For example, if you type related:wix.com into Google’s search bar, you can see results of alternative website builders like Squarespace, Shopify, Hostinger and GoDaddy.

While the related: operator gives you a quick snapshot of similar sites, Moz's True Competitor feature offers a more comprehensive analysis by identifying competitors based on shared keyword rankings and visibility, rather than just domain similarities.

With the Moz Keyword Gap feature, you can select up to three competitors from the list to analyze further.

You can quickly understand which competitor has the highest keyword ranking and opportunities to optimize your poorly performing pages or steal your competitor’s traffic.

9. Find affiliate marketing opportunities

Finding affiliate marketing opportunities can be a strategic way to increase visibility and drive sales through third-party endorsements. If a site reviews one of your competitors, they might be open to reviewing your product as well.

To find reviews of your competitors, use the allintitle: operator to find web pages whose titles contain the words you specify.

Using our wix example, you can research competitors with allintitle:review (squarespace OR weebly) to find websites that have published reviews about Squarespace or Weebly.

If you want a high-authority domain, enable MozBar in your browser to filter your options by websites with great domain and page authority and prioritize outreach with those sites. 

From the screenshot above, Wix might prioritize reviews from PCMag and Website Planet over other options on page one if they want the best impact and reach.

10. Find indexation errors

Use the site: operator to check which of your website's pages are indexed. This helps identify pages that shouldn't be indexed and those you want to be indexed that aren't appearing in search results.

Example: Search site:example.com filetype:pdf to find indexed PDFs. If you find a PDF that should be private, it indicates an indexing error.

If you have pages you don’t want indexed, use an x-robots noindex tag to fix the problem.

If you want to speed up the process, here’s how to use Moz Site Crawl to find indexing issues:

Check crawl errors: Look for HTTP errors (like 404s), excessive redirects, and blocked pages.

Review page issues: Filter by issue types, such as redirect chains, missing canonical tags, and noindex pages.

11. Deep dive into Google search parameters

Ever wanted to know how to construct your own Google search strings? This ultimate guide contains all of Google's search string parameters. you can also build your own advanced search using Google's advanced search form.

http://www.google.com/search?

Google's URL. You'll see it if you look at the address bar, or Chrome omnibar.

q=query+goes+here

The query string. Words are separated by + signs.

Everything from here on in is preceded by an & sign, as it's tagged on to the end. Here's where things get interesting.

12. Negative Keywords

as_eq=don't+include+these+words

Results must NOT include any words in this string.

Shows as -don't -include -these -words

13. Find results from specific dates

as_qdr=x

Swap out x for the following to limit the search to only files first indexed in:

• d - the previous 24 hours
• w - the previous seven days
• m - the previous month
• y - past year
• mn - the previous n number of months. So m2 would be the previous two, m3 would be three, and so on. Does work into double digits

14. Find pages with specific usage rights

as_rights=xxx

Limits the search to files/pages that have certain rights. The options are:

• (cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike|cc_noncommercial|cc_nonderived) - free to use or share
• (cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike|cc_nonderived).-(cc_noncommercial) - free to use or share, including commercially
• (cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike|cc_noncommercial).-(cc_nonderived) - free to use, share, or modify
• (cc_publicdomain|cc_attribute|cc_sharealike).-(cc_noncommercial|cc_nonderived) - free to use, share, or modify commercially

If you want to make up your own, put the bits you want in brackets, separated by pipe characters (|), and exclude the bits you don't by putting them in brackets, preceded by .- and again pipe-separated.

15. Do an allintitle search as a query string

allintitle%3Asearch+terms

This is actually appended to the q= parameter, hence a search for fishing with the allintitle term "sea bass" would require the following query:

q=fishing+allintitle%3Asea+bass

Shows as allintitle:search terms

N.B. This also works with allintext to search page body text, allinurl for searching the URL, and allinanchor for finding sites that are linked to with certain anchor text.

16. Find products in a specific price range
 

nnn..yyyy

Like the allin parameters, this is actually appended to the q= parameter. What this does, though, is let you search for results between numeric ranges. For example, if you wanted to find documents with numbers between 15 and 100, you'd put in 15..100. When combined with the site limiter, this is very useful for finding products in a price range. It works with $, £, and other such things.

Shows as query 15..100

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